When I saw the headline in The New York Times, I felt physically ill: “Koch Brothers’ Budget of $889 Million for 2016 Is on Par With Both Parties’ Spending.” In a bold and blatant move to control the outcome of a national elections, the Koch Brothers are building an old school mob-boss style political machine. Only they’re not looking out for anybody’s interest but their own:

The political network overseen by the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch plans to spend close to $900 million on the 2016 campaign, an unparalleled effort by coordinated outside groups to shape a presidential election that is already on track to be the most expensive in history.

The spending goal, revealed Monday at the Kochs’ annual winter donor retreat near Palm Springs, Calif., would allow their political organization to operate at the same financial scale as the Democratic and Republican Parties. It would require a significant financial commitment from the Kochs and roughly 300 other donors they have recruited over the years, and covers both the presidential and congressional races. In the last presidential election, the Republican National Committee and the party’s two congressional campaign committees spent a total of $657 million. (NYTimes)

The move puts the Koch brothers, who already have the nation’s Republican governors, representatives, and senators on speed dial, one step closer to their dream of complete control of the United States Government. Congratulations Americans! Your voice no longer matters in American politics. That’s because the politicians no longer need to care what you think. You can’t help them anymore. They just need people like Charles and David Koch—two of the richest men in America—to keep writing checks.

If this isn’t evidence enough for you to to finally get engaged and figure out what the Supreme Court ruling Citizen’s United means, then Lord help you. You can read a quick article about it here. More Americans believe in witchcraft, ghosts, and UFOs than agree with Citizens United. When 80% of the people agree on an important issue & the leaders refuse to act, something has to change. Nothing will change until outcry from normal everyday people who don’t have billions of dollars begin to rattle the cages of government.

I have no special affinity for the Democrats (or Republicans for that matter). More and more I have come to understand that my citizenship in the kingdom of heaven usurps any political ties or national affiliation. But I do think democracy is a pretty good thing. Freedom of speech is an essential protection for minority views, and I’ve got a few of those. We all have. But, the minority view no longer has a voice. The Koch brothers are buying the world’s largest sound system. We’re at the tipping point. When you and I speak, nobody will be listening, even if they are trying to hear. Citizen’s United must be overturned. If we need to impeach Supreme Court Justices to get it done, then so be it.

There has only ever been one impeached supreme court justice, thats very unlikely to happen. It is also very rare for the supreme court to nullify a previous decision.

There is a way for the legislature to nullify the Citizens United vs. FEC ruling: remove or alter section 501(c)(4) from the tax code to explicitly not grant tax-exempt status to organizations that have any involvement in politics.

Of course, such legislation would have to pass both the Senate and the House; and with the gerrymander-fueled vise grip the GOP has on the house, that is unlikely to happen any time soon.

Gregory Mullaley

The American Sheeple get the government they so richly deserve. They’re too busy watching some mind-numbing pablum such as “Dancing With the Stars” or some equally insipid drivel that they’ve failed to notice that even the farce of electing the country’s leaders has been pulled out from under their feet with “Citizen’s United”. The naked display of raw power that money can buy is being rubbed in the faces of the lumpin proletariat and they are oblivious to it. The Koch brothers and their ilk will be our masters in the new 1%ers oligarchy.

Be careful with comparing statistics with different measurements. The Koch brothers budget is for 2016.

These numbers you are quoting are combined numbers… 25 YEARS of donations for 1989 – 2014 and it is a predefined list of “heavy hitters”.

From their webpage:
“We
are working to revise this list to take into account the new realities of campaign finance
created by the Citizens United decision, but as it currently stands, there are significant
omissions”

scott stone

You are correct. I’m an anti CU guy who thinks we should have publicly financed elections. My point is that the Republicans, which I am not one of, get called to the carpet for their “fat cat” contributors. You know the meme. Few people want to admit it swings both ways. Few people want to acknowledge the Pres. Obama was the first to spend $1B to get elected. Way too much money in politics!
Also, and this may be trivial, but the Kochs aren’t personsally spending the money. It’s a combination of all of their donors. I just get tired of the boogeyman man scenario that is created around conservatives. The democrats are no more clean than the republicans. This is my main point.

You’re kidding, right? You do know that liberal billionaires vastly outspent the Kochs in the last two cycles, right? That they are planning to do so again in 2016, right? When you publish a similar rant about Tom Steyer, George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg, et. al., then I will take you concerns seriously. Until then, this is just a partisan rant. Oh, you might also try answering this question: how much free speech do you think private citizens should be allowed by the government (made up of politicians seeking to protect their jobs), because if Citizens United is overturned, that’s a question that Congress–CONGRESS!–gets to ask and answer.